said by Sly:The water took about 5 minutes to drain down. Last night we got a light frost and so I took your advice and covered them with 36 gallon trash bags. Worked perfect. This morning they looked great when I pulled the bags off.
This is my first time doing them this way. We'll see how it goes. I also pruned the plants to remove branches that didn't have any flowers on them. Wish me luck.
I know you will have more tomatoes than you know what to do with. I end up giving more away than I eat. Some years the neighbors would pretend they were not home when I came with another bag of tomatoes
.
Probably the most critical part of growing them in containers is water. The soil temperature in the can will get pretty warm and that stimulates growth and also makes the plants take up more water than if they were planted in a regular garden. The roots cannot spread out like they would in the ground so the only water they have is what you add.
Not only do they require more water, but it needs to come at regular intervals. This is especially important when the tomatoes get almost full grown. As they grow the plant is literally pumping water into the fruit all the time. The amount of water depends on how much is available in the soil. As the tomato starts maturing the outer skin starts to harden and if the water supply is erratic the plant pumps a lot when a lot is available and less when there is less. So if the skin starts to harden and the plant suddenly pumps more water than usual the skin will split causing radial cracking.
It took me several years to figure out why so many of my tomatoes were cracking and splitting. Since coming up with my watering plan it's rare for any of them to split.
P.S. Keep me up to date on their progress. I'm interested in how the fish emulsion works out. I use miracle grow tomato plant food, but have considered the fish emulsion (but hate the smell
).